When a semiconductor substrate is manufactured, the result of evaluation of the semiconductor substrate may be usefully used. There is a photoluminescence (PL) evaluation method, as an example of a semiconductor substrate evaluation method. In the PL evaluation method, excitation light is radiated to the surface of a semiconductor substrate, and light generated when electron/hole pairs, excited by the excitation light, are recombined is detected in order to obtain information about the quality of the semiconductor substrate, for example, information about various crystalline defects, such as metal contamination or defects in the semiconductor substrate.
In the convention PL evaluation method, however, surface recombination loss occurs due to external contamination of the semiconductor substrate and the processed state of the semiconductor substrate, whereby it is not possible to accurately evaluate whether the semiconductor substrate is contaminated or the degree of contamination.
Also, in the case in which the semiconductor substrate is doped at a high concentration, the intensity of light detected using the PL evaluation method is high, whereby it is not possible to accurately evaluate whether metal contamination is present in the semiconductor substrate and the degree of metal contamination.